Wire crate.



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WIRE CRATE.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 28. 1914.

Patented May16, 1916.

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ami humus 1 THE COLUMBIA PMNOGRAPH c0., WASHINGTON, D. c

atto'tililf SAMUEL G. GILLESPIE, OF CHARLESTON, WEST VIRGINIA.

WIRE CRATE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented May 16, 1916.

Application filed May 28, 1914. SeriaI'No. 841,545.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, SAMUEL G. GILLESPIE, acitizen of the United States, residing at Charleston, in the county ofKanawha, State of lVest Virginia, have invented certain new and usefulImprovements in WVire Crates; and I do hereby declare the following tobe a full, clear, and exact description of. the invention, such as willenable others skilled in the artto which it appertains to make and usethe same.

This invention relates to collapsible wire crates designed for use inshipping fiber boxes of fruit and the like, and has for an object toprovide a crate which may be easily collapsed into a flat condition soas to take up a minimum amount of room in stor 1ng.

A further object of the invention is to provide a crate having its endand side walls secured to the bottom wall by permanent substantiallyS-shaped hooks that facilitate setting up and taking down of the crate.

A still further object of the invention is to provide a crate having itsend and side walls secured together through the instrumentality ofresilient staple like hooks, the bights of the hooks straddling the staywires of the side walls while the shanks of the hooks terminate inspring eyes which spring over the adjacent border wires of the endwalls, these spring eyes permitting of the hooks being mounted ordetached in a minimum time and with minimum labor in setting up ortaking down the crate.

\Vith the above and other objects in view the invention consists ofcertain novel details of construction and combination of partshereinafter fully described and claimed, it being understood thatvarious modifications may be made in the minor details of constructionwithin the scope of the appended claim.

In the accompanying drawings forming part of this specification :Figure1 is a perspective view of a crate constructedin accordance with myinvention. Fig. 2 is a plan view of the crate in knocked down condition.Fig. 3 is a detail perspective view showing the manner of attaching thestaplelike hooks, the dotted lines indicating the position assumed bythe hooks in snapping them over a portion of the crate.

Referring now to the drawings in which like characters of referencedesignate similar parts, the crate is shown to comprise a bottom 10, endwalls 11, side walls 12, these walls all being connected together attheir lower edges permanently by S-shaped hooks 13, and a cover 14 whichis separate from the above named parts, and is connected to the sidewalls by a hasp 15 as will hereinafter be more fully described.

The bottom, end walls, side walls and cover are preferably each formedof a Wire bent to form a rectangular frame comprising longitudinal andtransverse border rods 16 and 17. Crossed diagonal brace wires 18 areterminally connected to the corners of each rectangular frame andreinforce the same against distortion. Furthermore, a plurality ofspaced transverse stay wires are terminally connected to thelongitudinal border wires of the bottom frame as shown at 19 toreinforce the bottom against bulging when the weight of the cratecontents comes upon it. The frames of the end walls are likewise bracedby transverse stay wires 20 which are terminally connected to theupright border wires of the frames. Finally the frames of the side wallsare braced by upright and longitudinal stay wires 21 and 22 which areterminally connected to the border wires of the frame. A Wire meshscreen is marginally secured to the border wires of the bottom, end,cover and side wall frames as shown at 23 to prevent pilfering of thecrate contents.

As above stated the bottom, side and end walls are secured together byS-shaped hooks, these hooks being arranged to embrace the border wiresof the frames and permanently secure the parts together so that when thecrate is knocked down to collapsed condition, as shown in Fig. 2, theparts will extend in a single plane and thus will occupy a minimumamount of space when stored.

For detachably securing together the side and end walls in set upposition, staple like hooks 25 are employed, the bights of the hooksbeing arranged astride of the upright stay wires of the side walls, andthe legs of the staples terminating in spring eyes 26 which are adaptedto be manually sprung over the upright border wires of the end walls. Inknocking down the crate, it is simply necessary to exert a sufficientpressure upon the bights of the hooks in the direction of the end wallsto disengage the spring eyes from the upright border wires of the endwalls. By virtue of this construction of fastening hook, the crate maybe set up or knocked down in a minimum time and with minimum manualexertion.

For detachably securing the cover in position, the above mentioned hasp15 is preferably formed of a single staple the legs of which are bentabruptly in the same direction adjacent to their terminals, and adjacentto the bight of the staple as shown at 27 and 28, the terminal bentportions 27 being equipped with eyes which embrace the longitudinal staywires of one of the side walls, and the bent portion 28 of the staplebeing adapted to extend downwardly and lie flat upon the opposite sidewall. A pad lock 29 is engaged with the bight of the staple and with abowed keeper 30 carried by the central longitudinal stay Wire of theside Wall, The cover is in this manner locked in position and the cratemade secure against pilfering while en route to its destination.

Vhat is claimed, is

A collapsible crate including a bottom member, side and end membershinged to said bottom member, each of said side and end membersincluding a skeleton frame, transverse and longitudinal stay bars ,in-

cluded in the frame of the side memlk'r's' and the former being disposedadjacent each end of the side member, and U-shaped members having theirarms disposed on opposite sides of both the transverse and longitudinalstay bars, and the free ends of said arms terminating in spring hooks 3Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressingthe Commissioner of Pitents, Washington, D. G."

